Shorty: Boy Erased

I just saw Boy Erased and it’s another sad tale about a young man who is attracted to other young men, except this time it features no Queen songs or cats. When his parents find out about his sexuality, unlike any of the other parents I’ve seen in similar movies this year, they send him to do conversion therapy and the movie takes off from there.

For starters I’m going to say this movie won’t be for everyone. This movie tackles religion, homosexuality and finally the main flaws of conversion therapy. Also it’s a very depressing movie so it’s best that you watch this movie with a friend and do something happy afterwards.

Don’t watch this movie alone because I did and I regret it.

This is one man’s story as we see Jared going to the therapy and having a pretty miserable time there and getting no sympathy from his parents when the day is over. I’m a bit mixed on Lucas Hedges’ performance as for the majority of the movie I felt he was just okay and might have been miscast. But as the movie went along he did get better. I did feel sorry for Jared though because the movie does a good job at getting you behind this character. It’s also nice to finally see a gay man not be bogged down by his ex-girlfriend and be free to fully express himself and dive head first into the subject matter they are tackling.

Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe play his parents and they can be a hit or miss for most of the movies they are in. But in this one they’re really good. I loved the different relationship each of them had with Jared. They were also characters you could get behind instead of being just one dimensional side characters. You don’t normally see interesting parent characters in movies like this and I appreciate the change.

The scenes where Jared goes to conversion therapy for some reason sometimes reminded me of Full Metal Jacket, like there is scene when one of the counsellors (I think he was a counsellor) makes the kids do all these different activities and at some points Joel Edgerton’s character, Sykes, kind of reminded me of R Lee Ermey’s character in Full Metal Jacket. Irrelevant comparison aside, these scenes are shown as hell for Jared and the other kids as the counsellors abuse their patients and are basically telling them to stop being a homosexual and another comparison to Full Metal Jacket is that most of these scenes involve picking on the fat kid!

Which one of these fine gentlemen would you want to be trapped on a desert island with?

The movie gets very dark at some points which do get a bit uncomfortable to watch but I’m not going to go into it because it’s pretty disturbing. Something positive is I quite liked the score for this movie which felt kind of cheerful and I like the subtle themes this movie has which can be seen at the beginning with Jared putting his arm out the car door window and his mum telling him to put it back in the car because she is afraid a truck will come by. This also ties into the ending which is nice to see in a sad depressing movie.

If I’ve got to point out things I didn’t really like I think it took too long to pick up and one of the flashbacks I found confusing as to what time did it take place. Other than that it was well shot, fairly well paced, great acting and music, an emotional story and very well directed by Joel Edgerton. I’ll give it a 9/10 and I give it the official BC Approved Seal. It’s not for everyone but if what I have said interests you then go ahead and watch away.